POLITICS


When darkness descends, the East Midlands must be a beacon


When the lights next go out in factories across Europe, the darkness must be driven by the innovation and strength of businesses in the East Midlands. That will be the message behind the Chamber’s Manufacturing and Engineering Conference later this month, where calls will be made for the region to become a beacon in the fourth industrial revolution. The first industrial revolution started on the


River Derwent, Derbyshire, specifically between Cromford and Derby, in the 18th Century and in the textile industry. Derby’s Silk Mill was the site of a mechanised silk factory in 1721 – hailed as the world’s first factory. But it was inventor, pioneer and entrepreneur


Richard Arkwright who was accredited with being the founding father of the modern factory after he built his water-powered textiles plant at Cromford in 1769. Inspired by Arkwright’s success, 13 years later


John Smedley and Peter Nightingale built a similar factory at Lea Mills, still home today to garment-manufacturer John Smedley and now recognised as the world’s oldest factory in continuous production. It was about 100 years later, from 1870 to 1914,


that electricity-powered mass production, the telephone, electric lighting and later the internal combustion engine drove the second industrial revolution. The importance to the East Midlands of the


invention of the automobile cannot be overstated. Rolls-Royce was founded in the town (it wasn’t a city back then) in 1906. The company later started making jet engines and although the car firm moved on, the aero- industry and defence business remains and is the city’s biggest employer. Space travel also took off during this age. In the 1980s, the third industrial revolution


saw the advent and adoption of digital technologies, including supervised mechanisation and robotisation in factories, the introduction of personal computers, mobile telephony and the internet. It was more an evolution from the second


industrial revolution where the power of the digital age was greatly enhanced – the navigation system on the first manned lunar space expedition, for example, had just 32kb storage capacity and just 4kb of RAM, which is 250,000 time less than the processing power of a 2014 iPhone. The fourth industrial revolution builds on the


‘digital revolution’, finding new ways to embed new technology in society through vastly more complex robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), nanotechnology, quantum computing, biotechnology, The Internet of Things, 3D printing and autonomous vehicles.


38 business network March 2018 Sir Richard Arkwright (right) revolutionised factories with his water-powered textiles plant at Cromford


‘The greater the mechanisation and robotisation, the less the demand for people to oversee the work the machines do’


It has been described as the fusion of


physical, digital and biological worlds. In his book, The Fourth Industrial Revolution,


Professor Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, described how this revolution is fundamentally different from the previous three, which were characterised mainly by advances in technology. He claimed these technologies have great


potential to continue to connect people to the web, drastically improve the efficiency of business and organisations and help regenerate the natural environment through better asset management. It will see greater proliferation of ‘dark


factories’ – where mechanisation and robotisation will function without human supervision and no need for heating or lighting. In an independent review of industrial digitalisation, Professor Juergen Maier, CEO at Siemens UK, in his Made Smarter report, sets out how UK manufacturing can be transformed through the adoption of industrial digital technology (IDT). He was commissioned by the Government to


put forward proposals for an Industrial Digitalisation sector deal in the Industrial Strategy green paper. In his findings he reported that over ten years, industrial digitalisation could boost UK manufacturing by £455bn, increasing sector growth up to three per cent a year and create a net gain of 175,000 jobs while reducing CO2 emissions by 4.5%. The Review focuses on three priority areas,


informed by understanding of the three main challenges business face.


They are:


1 Leadership: more ambitious, informed and focused leadership


2 Adoption: more widespread adoption of IDTs across supply chains, especially within SMEs


3 Innovation: faster innovation and creation of new IDTs, new IDT companies/value-streams and new capabilities to sustain UK competitive advantage.


“There are many challenges ahead and ‘dark


factories’ is one of them. When the lights go out in factories we need to make sure it is because we in the UK, and in the East Midlands in particular, are delivering the innovation and expertise that makes it possible,” said Chris Hobson, Director of Policy at the Chamber. It is commonly accepted that ‘dark factories’


will have a serious impact on jobs. The real trick is going to come in identifying how the workplace will change and to make sure we are leading the dynamic.” He added: “Think back just 20 years; there


was no internet and robots existed only in films and parts of the manufacturing process. Today machines are more advanced, more reliable, they can self-diagnose when things go wrong and be monitored remotely via the Internet of Things. “Twenty years ago, even ten years ago, there


was no such thing as an app designer but today it is a recognised skill. “Where we need to be smart is, on the one


hand, leading the innovation that keeps the region at the cutting edge of ‘dark factory’ technology and, on the other, identifying ahead of the game the new jobs that will be created as technology improves. Industry needs to work closely with our world-leading universities and colleges to ensure that each cohort of leavers is equipped to meet the challenges of the modern world, not just tomorrow’s world but next year’s and 20 years ahead.”


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